The Permaculture Logowhat it symbolises

This explanation is an extract from Permaculture - A Designer's Manual, the definitive Permaculture text, by Bill MollissonPublished byTAGARI PUBLICATIONS

'The great oval of the design represents the egg of life; that quantity of life which cannot be created or destroyed, but from within which all things that live are expressed. Within the egg is coiled the rainbow snake, the Earth-shaper of Australian & American aboriginal peoples..........Within the body of the Rainbow Serpent is contained the Tree of Life, which itself expresses the general pattern of life forms, as further elaborated in the chapter on pattern in this book. Its roots are in earth, & its crown in rain sunlight & wind. Elemental forces & flows shown external to the oval represent the physical environment, the sun & the matter from which life on earth is formed. The whole cycle & form is dedicated, as is this book, to the complexity of life on Earth.'

This logo evolved from the one with which I have illustrated Re-earth the Cities!, with the kind permission of the artist, Andrew Jeeves, I chose the earlier version because it has the feeling of enclosure & of protectedness which the builders of ancient cities tried to achieve by the building of a wall. But here the protection comes from the life-force itself, & the enclosed space is verdant & peaceful - a green city at peace with itself, its inhabitants & its environment.